For 20 years we tried to get good conservative candidates in NJ and get them into office.
We were betrayed by RINO Whitman, we tried to get others into the Senate and the Governorship, but the people of NJ just kept pulling the Dem lever, in spite of all the evidence of institutionalized corruption and Dem malfeasance.
We even had the State Supreme Court ignore state election law and allow Lautenberg to go on the ballot instead of Torricelli in 2002.
That was the final signal that NJ would never get out of Dem clutches.
Corrupt government, corrupt education system, teachers unions, state government workers, layers and layers of fiefdoms in local government(town,county,education district, state), high property taxes, unfettered immigration—these have all worked to destroy a once vibrant state that was the center of manufacturing and the American Dream into the late 1960s.
I left NJ in 2006 knowing I could not retire there.
Came to southern DE where the taxes are low, the people are conservative, the beaches and farms are close by, and small town America still exists.The only unfortunate part is that the northern, more populated part of DE is hopelessly Democrat, but they don’t fare that well in Sussex County.
Contrary to what you may have heard or seen from the NJ Turnpike, NJ is one of the most beautiful states in the country. Rich in history, beaches, farmlands, mountains, nature, it is an amazing place.
It is run by complete A-holes from the governor on down.
Twenty years ago we gad a chance to fix it, but we blew it as a state.
Now, there is no turning back. Boomers are leaving, and immigrants who need services are replacing them and then some.
The elderly will be stuck there and eventually lose their homes to property taxes.
A state where anything could be and was built, does not work anymore.
Soon there will not be enough in all of NJ to pay its bills for pensions, benefits and gov’t obligations.
And I place the blame on the Dems and the weak-willed, feckless RINOS who were their accomplices.
NJ is a microcosm of where we are heading as a nation.
That was an outstanding summary—sad, but true.
Just like most states, there are your "stay away" areas like Camden, Newark and Atlantic City - which is a poor relation to Las Vegas.
Some things have to crash and burn hard before people will be willing to fix it.
Very well said, thanks!